Dump-car-operating mechanism.



F. DITCHFIELD.

DUMP CAR OPERATING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED sEPT.20,1915.

l 1 89,353. Patented July 4, 1916.

FRANK D ITQHHELD, 0F MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA.

DUMP-CAR-OPERATING MECHANISM.

Specification of Let-ters Patent.

Patented July 4, 1916.

Application filed September 20L 1915. Serial No. 51,634.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, FRANK Drronrnnp,2 a citizen of the'Dom-inion ofY Canada, and resident of the city of Montreal, in the Province of Quebec and Dominion of Canada, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Dump -A Car Operating Mechanism, of which the .follow-ing is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to improvements in operating mechanism for railway dump cars, and t-he object of the invention is to provide mechanism particularly adapted to cars having swing-out side doors and swingdown floor doors, such as described in detail in my copending application, Ser. No. 51,633 led September 20, 1915.

A further object is to provide an operating mechanism for cars of this type arranged to connect the side and floor doors, whereby the doors operate simultaneously and lassist one another in both opening rand closing.

The device consists essentially of a lever iXed to the side door at its axis of suspension and connected at its free end with the floor door by means of a link.y An operating shaft is provided extending from end to end of the car, so that the doors may be operated simultaneously at both ends; with-y out 'subjecting the doors to torsional stress. This shaft is provided with cranks; connected at their free ends with the, side doors by means of links, so that on the operation of the shaft, the side door will be IIiQved and will through its, connection with the floor door move the latter.

In the drawings which illustrate the inventiom-Figure 1 is a partial end View of a car showing the operating lneohanism and doors in both open and closed positions. F ig. 2 is a plan view of the mechanism at one end of a can Fig. 3, is a fragmentary side elevationl showingl one method of connecting the mechanism with the side door at its axis of suspension.` Fig. i is a fragmentary longitudinal section of the floor Y door showing the method of connecting the per corners. The floor doors 1,5 are hinged to the center sill at their inner edges, and are provided at their outer edges with tracks 16 for the engagement of rollers, 1.7 mounted on the lower edge of the, side door. Brackets 18 are secured to the center sill at suitable intervals, and are provided with hollow cylindrical portions 19 in which the operating shaft 20 is revolubly mounted. Brackets 21 are secured toy the side doors and areJA revolubly mounted upon the cyl-indrical portions 19. f

Any suitable operating mechanism of known design is provided for the operating shaft., of which only the ratchet Wheel 22 is shown.v The end of the shaft is provided with@ crank23 preferably formed in two webs, between which a link 24: is pivotally mounted at one end, as shown at 25,. The opposite end of the is. pivotally mounted on a pin 26 secured to the lower edge of the side. door.y This. link is bent intermediate its ends at 27, so that. the shaft may be rotated sufficiently to` bring the pivotal point- 25. across a produced `line drawn through the pivotal point 26 and the center of the Shaft 20, before the lin-k strikes the shaft 20. 0

A lever 28 is; fixed at one end to the itsl free end with one end of a link 29. TheV opposite end of the link 2,9 is vpivotally mounted on a pin 30 secured to the end of the door door intermediate its inner and outer edges.

It will be seen that the cranks, 23, overlap atthe center of the cai',l thus 'bringing one link Mfartherfrom the end of the car than the other. Inl order to avoid a multiplicity of different parts in the manufacture of the can, it has been found advisable tol make both the cranks and` thelinkSwith the hubs there of projecting from onerside, so thatby turning theY hub. in 'on Yone, memberv and outv on the other member-,the desired clearance will Y be obtainedmndthe Shatsandpvot pins 26 Y will also be duplicates. The dimensions of the parts andthe positioning of the'pivot ,pointsY are Vnot relatively fixed, but must be determinedaocordngtothe weight-sizeand' v Y Y anglo O SLNLOQIIS' in both. open and closed positions, so that thefonly rule which; caribe i laid down on this point; is thatfth'e; dimens' sions of theparts andthe positioning ofthe pivotal poi-'nts must'. be SuchV that the weight of the load; pressing down on the floor door will suflice, when the doors are unlocked, to raise the side door out of the path of the escaping load, and when the car is empty, to permit the side door, in falling to closed position by the action of gravity, to raise the floor door to closed position against the ac` tion of gravity.

The operation of the device is extremely simple and will be readily understood from the drawings and foregoing description, and may be summarized as follows :nl 'Then the car is closed and locked, the parts are in the position shown in full lines, F ig. l. To unlock the car, the shaft 2() is rotated through an angle of a few degrees to the right, 'foie ing the lower edge of the side door out of engagement with the outer edge of the iioor door. The floor door naturally presses down on the side door and would render this unlocking difficult, if it were not for the mechanism comprising the lever 28 and link 29, by means of which the downward pressure of the floor door also operates to throw the side door outwardly. When once the doors have disengaged, the weight of the load on the iioor door depresses the same to its limit of movement, and at the same time through the medium of the link 29 and lever 2S, raises the side door to full open position out of the path of the escaping load, as shown in broken lines, F ig. l. When the load has been discharged, the downward pressure on the floor door is removed, and all that retains the floor door open is the pull of gravit-y, which may be expressed as one-half the weight of the door, the other half being su pportrd by the center sill. The side door being supported at its highest point, the action of gravity is to close the same, and as the nature of the car to which this mechanism is applicable usually requires a much heavier side door than floor door, the greater' weight of the side door, combined with the leverage which it exerts, owing to its position, enables it to raise the floor door through the medium of the lever 28 and link 29. At the same time, the inwardly moving lower edge of the side door operates through the link 24 and crank 23 to rotate the shaft 2O toward the left. lf the momentum of the doors is not suflicient to entirely close the same, the doors will come to a state of equilibrium very near the closed position, and rotation of the shaft 2O will operate through the crank 23 and link 24 to draw the side door into fully closed position, and at the same time raise the fioor door to fully closed position through the medium of the side door, the lever 28 and the link 29. It is obvious that since such an operation will commence from a point where the doors are in equilibrium, there will at the outset be no appreciable resistance to the movement, and before the resistance develops to a degree nearly equaling f the strength of the operator, the side door will be drawn under the Hoor door and the roller 17 will have a camming action on the track 16, suflicient to raise the floor door to fully closed position, without increase of effort and entirely irrespective of the parts 28 and 29. The shaft is then rotated to bring the crank 23 and link 24C to the position shown in full lines, with the point 25 below the projected line through the centers of the pins 26 and shaft 20, so that when the car is again loaded, outward thrust of the load on the side door will tend to produce continued revolution of the shaft in the closing direction, which is, however, checked by the engagement of the link on the shaft 20, so that the mechanism locks itself without the use of additional parts.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim iszl. In a car, the combination with a side door and a floor door, of a lever rigidly connected to the side door, and a link connecting the free extremity of said lever with the iioor door.

2. In a car, the combination with a side door pivotally supported at its upper edge and a floor door pivotally supported at its inner edge, of a lever xed to said side door y at the pivotal aXis thereof, and a. link connecting said lever with a point on the floor door intermediate the inner and outer edges thereof.

3. In a car, the combination with a side door pivot-ed at its upper edge and a floor door pivoted at its inner edge, of a level' rigidly connected to each end of the door at the pivotal axis thereof, a link extending from each lever to the floor door and pivotally connected to the door at a point intermediate the inner and outer edges thereof. the length of said levers being approximately equal to the distance between the pivotal aXis of the iioor door and the pivotal connection of the links with said floor door.

L ln a car, the combination with a. pivotally suspended side door of a floor door pivotally supported at one edge and supported at the opposite edge by said side door, an operating shaft, a crank thereon, and a link connecting said crank and the side door arranged to draw the same into engagement with the floor door.

5. In a car, the combination with a side door pivotally suspended at the upper edge and a floor door pivotally suspended at one edge and supported at the opposite edge by the side door, of an operating shaft, a crank thereon, a link connecting the crank and side door and arranged to draw the side door into engagement with the floor door and lock the same.

G. In a car, the combination with a side door pivotally suspended at the upper edge and a floor door pivotally suspended at one edge and supported at the opposite edge by the side door, of an operating shaft, a crank thereon, and a link connecting the crank and side door and arranged to draw the side door into engagement with the floor door and lock the saine, said link being offset whereby motion of the crank will be checked by engagement of the link and shaft after the crank has passed over the line including the centers of the shaft and point of connection between the link and door.

7. In a car, a floor door pivotally supported at its inner edge, a side door pivotally supported at its upper edge and at its lower edge supporting the outer edge of the floor door, an operating shaft, a crank thereon, link connection between said crank and the side door, a lever fixed to the side door at its pivotal axis, and a link connecting said lever and the Hoor door.

8. In a car, a side door pivotally sus pended at its upper edge, a floor door pivotally supported at its inner edge and at its outer edge supported by the side door, tracks at the outer edge of said floor door, and rollers at the lower edge of said side door positioned to travel on said tracks.

9. In a car, a side door pivotally suspended at its upper edge, a floor door pivotally supported at its inner edge and at its outer edge supported by the side door, tracks at the outer edge of said floor door, and rollers at the lower edge of said side door positioned to travel on said tracks, connection between said side and floor doors arranged to raise the floor door on inward movement of the side door, an operating shaft, and connection between the operating shaft and side door arranged to draw the same inwardly to a position of engagement under the floor door.

10. In a car, the combination with a side door pivotally supported at its upper edge and a floor door pivotally supported at its inner edge, of a shaft, and means operated by the shaft for simultaneously raising the floor door and drawing the side door into engagement under the floor door, said floor door raising means including the side door and its operating means.

11. In a car, the combination with a side door pivotally supported at its upperedge and normally closable by the action of gravity, and a floor door pivotally supported at one edge and normally openable by the force of gravity, of connection between 'the side and floor doors, whereby closing of ihe side door simultaneously closes the floor oor.

12. In a car, the combination with a side door pivotally supported at its upper edge and normally closable by the action of gravity, and a floor door pivotally supported at one edge and normally openable by the force of gravity, of connection between the side and floor doors, whereby closing of the side door simultaneously closes the floor door, an operating shaft, and means connecting the operating shaft and side door arranged to lock the side door against opening movement.

13. In a car, the combination with a side door pivoted at its upper edge and a floor door pivoted at its inner edge and adapted at its outer edge for engagement with the side door, of means connecting the side and floor doors whereby closing movement of the side door due to the action of gravity will produce simultaneous closingV movement of the floor door against the action of gravity and bring the doors into equilibrium in partially closed position, a revoluble locking shaft, and means connecting the shaft and side door arranged to draw the side door to fully closed position in engagement under the floor door, and simultaneously raise the floor door to fully closed position through the medium of the side door and its connection with the floor door.

14. In a car, the combination with side and ioor doors, and an operating shaft, of a toggle mechanism arranged to connect the side and ioor doors, and a second toggle mechanism arranged to connect the side door and operating shaft.

15. In a car, the combination with a frame and doors, of tubular bracketsV fixed to the frame, an operating shaft passing through said tubular brackets, and complementary members fixed to the doors encircling portions of said brackets and forming therewith door hinges.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, in presence of two witnesses.

FRANK DITCHFI'ELD. Witnesses: v

S. R. W. ALLEN, G. M. MORELAND.

Washington, D. 0.

copies of this patent may be obtained tor'nve cents each, bi addressing the VCommissioner of latenti. f 

